Jim Tressel is yet another domino that continues to hurt NCAA Football.
By Dan Rubin
Boston College used to sell a shirt at its bookstore with a “WE ARE…BC” logo on the back. Around the logo bore the expression: For Pride, For Passion, For Respect, For Responsibility. At their home football games, their sportsmanship announcement punctuated that with a “For Boston! We are! BC!” It was a way to tie the right morals about the game with what it meant to wear maroon and gold and what it meant to show respect for your opponent while hoping your team beat the stuffing out of their opponent.
Boston College football averaged a respectable 38,000-plus fans per game. Their stadium, located on campus in Chestnut Hill, seats only 44,400, so that number reflects an almost 75% full stadium every game. This, of course, doesn’t take into consideration that some games were against lower-profile opponents, not televised, and at a start time when fans usually didn’t show up (noontime starts against Central Michigan usually don’t cut it).
But where a [6-6] record got BC a date in the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl against Nevada, the Eagles still finished the season as one of the top-ranked teams in the nation. That’s because Boston College graduated 91% of eligible student-athlete lettermen, a rate that placed them as the best academic institution in the NCAA’s Division I Football Bowl Subdivision.
